Foolishness that results from a lack of foresight or lack of practicality.
It would be folly to walk all that way, knowing the shops are probably shut by now.
Thoughtless action resulting in tragic consequence.
The purchase of Alaska from Russia was termed Seward's folly.
(architecture) A fanciful building built for purely ornamental reasons.
A luncheonette in the shape of a coffee cup is particularly conspicuous, as is intended of an architectural duck or folly.
verb
(dialectal) To follow.
noun
(largely obsolete outside place names) A clump of trees, particularly one on the crest of a hill (or sometimes on a stretch of open ground).
During the 1920s and 1930s, Folly Farms (above) [referencing a photograph of a farmhouse surrounded by large trees] was owned by Mrs. Samuel Pennington Rotan of Pennsylvania, who was involved in the effort to improve medical care for the indigent people around Ways Station. … Folly Farms was originally known as Myrtle Grove …